The Weinstein Company, Seeking Hits, Shifts to TV

The Weinstein Company, founded eight years ago by Mr. Weinstein and his brother, Bob, is making a surge into TV production that will soon test whether it can extend its success in film to the world of television.

By next year, the company — known for movies like this year’s prize contender “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” along with some reality television, including “Project Runway,” and scattered fashion and media ventures — will be at work on more than a half-dozen new scripted series, while expanding its unscripted TV business.

The heavy investment in the production and sale of series signals a strategic shift that is meant to anchor Weinstein, a midsize independent studio, almost equally in television and film. It mirrors changes occurring elsewhere in Hollywood: Last week, for instance, the much larger Sony Pictures Entertainment said it would trim its film slate, while building up TV.

“The way to add stability to the company is to be in the television business,” Harvey Weinstein said in an interview by phone last week. Mr. Weinstein, who spoke jointly with the company’s president, David Glasser, said his goal was to create a television operation “as powerful as the theatrical division.”

The planned series will include a 10-episode detective drama set in ancient Egypt called “Book of the Dead,” in a deal that involves a British partnership and prospective sales in the United States, and “10 Commandments,” a 10-episode series being produced for the Tribune Company’s WGN America. In that, film directors like Lee Daniels, Madonna, Ryan Coogler and Wes Craven might each oversee an episode based on one of the commandments handed to Moses.

Other planned shows are “Marco Polo,” a martial arts-filled adventure series from the executive producer John Fusco for Netflix; “War and Peace,” a 14-episode retelling of Tolstoy’s Napoleonic war novel in association with the BBC; “Stan and Ollie,” about the later days of the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy comedy team, also for the BBC, and possible sale here; and an “Entourage”-like comic series, based loosely on the adventures of the celebrity chef Michael Chiarello.

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The Weinstein Company’s television operation is counting in part on Harvey Weinstein’s flair for promotion. CreditAlexandra Wyman/Getty Images for TWC

The company has also acquired rights to “Peaky Blinders,” a British crime series, and “Gomorrah,” an Italian mob drama, both of which are being offered for sale in the United States.

Those scripted shows join a growing roster of reality projects, including “Concrete Kings,” about the construction business, and “Rodeo Girls,” about female rodeo competitors, both for A&E; and “Under the Gunn” a spinoff of the company’s continuing “Project Runway” series on Lifetime.

Over all, the television operation — headed by Meryl Poster, a former film producer — is counting on what Weinstein associates describe as “the Harvey factor” and “the Weinstein DNA.” Those have something to do with the brothers’ talent relationships, and Harvey Weinstein’s undeniable flair for promotion. (His latest coup was landing an official White House screening for “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” even as administration officials said they planned to stop dabbling in Hollywood’s Oscar campaigns.)

Though no guarantee of success, the combination is enough to command attention.

“Would I be surprised in the coming years if Harvey brought something to us that makes sense for HBO? Not in the least,” said Richard Plepler, chief executive of HBO. The TV push is backed by money from a freshly negotiated $370 million in available lending from an arrangement with Union Bank. About $150 million of that is earmarked for television, Mr. Glasser said.

Mr. Weinstein acknowledged that in its early years, his company stumbled in a first round of expansion that aimed to make it less a studio than a mini-media conglomerate. “We had a rough start, to say the least,” he said.

Early misadventures included the brief ownership of a controlling stake in the social network ASmallWorld, and the acquisition of a majority stake in Genius, a home video distribution company that flopped. Once valued at $400 million, the Genius holding dwindled in value as the DVD market collapsed, and was off-loaded in 2009.

Mr. Weinstein said James L. Dolan, a friend and the chief executive of Cablevision Systems, had been particularly forceful in urging him to focus on television. With its relatively quick pacing and potential for long-running hits, TV can be a counterweight to the jagged economics of film, where even a success like “The King’s Speech” — a Weinstein-distributed Oscar winner in 2011 — may fade without creating spinoffs and sequels.

In an email, Harold Vogel, an entertainment industry analyst, said the company’s foray into television could make sense.

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The coming movie “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” starring Josh Brolin, could yield a TV series.CreditRico Torres/Weinstein Company

“It is a lot smarter for them to move toward TV scripted production than to pursue cable networks, publishing, games and other such off-the-reservation ventures, as they’ve done in the past,” Mr. Vogel wrote.

But TV, he pointed out, can be as capital-hungry as movies — the “Marco Polo” series, for instance, will cost about $90 million to produce. And despite the success of say, Jerry Bruckheimer, who years ago shifted from film to television, there is no guarantee that movie-world skills will matter in a different medium.

“The amply demonstrated Weinstein expertise is in spotting one-off films already made and in film distribution and marketing,” Mr. Vogel wrote. “In TV production, I’d not be certain that any of these skills are readily transferable.”

Bob Weinstein, interviewed separately from his brother, said he was developing original projects that would be in tune with his horror- and action-oriented Dimension brand, along with several shows based on movies he has overseen for the company. He is preparing a pilot based on the “Scream” films for MTV, for instance, and developing a proposed 10-part series with Frank Darabont, based on Dimension’s film version of Stephen King’s “The Mist.”

Mr. Weinstein said he was also hoping to quickly follow the August release of the film “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, with a “Sin City” television series from Mr. Miller and Mr. Rodriguez.

Asked whether some of his past and present Oscar contenders might lead to future television shows, Harvey Weinstein said he saw potential, for instance, in “Silver Linings Playbook,” a comedy-drama that was written and directed by David O. Russell, and received eight Oscar nominations last year. Among this year’s contenders, he said Tracy Letts, the playwright who wrote both the stage and screen versions of “August: Osage County,” may become involved with at least an episode or two.

As for the Weinstein Company’s financial prospects, Mr. Weinstein said a vigorous push into television would help it to raise the next round of financing, whether through a public offering or otherwise.

“It certainly makes it easier for a liquidity event,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Weinsteins, Seeking Hits, Shift to TV. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe